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Your Privacy Protection Under the Law
While currently there is no national law to protect the privacy of the information you share online, federal law and state law do offer some protection to various kinds of personal information collected about you. At the national level, Congress has enacted laws as it perceived the need to arise. Therefore, you will see from the list below that you have privacy rights in specific kinds of information—information maintained about you in the health care system, your education records, the record of your video rentals, to name a few.
| While currently there is no national law protecting the privacy of your information, federal and state law do offer some protections. |
At the same time, the states have exercised their strong interest in protecting their citizens as consumers, patients, students and participants in civic life. Some states have enacted protections beyond those provided in national law; others offer more limited protection.
Legal protection for privacy varies from state to state. If you have specific questions about your privacy protection at the state level, a resource you may find useful is Compilation of State & Federal Privacy Laws, published by Robert Ellis Smith. The publication contains a wealth of information about state and federal laws directed at protecting your privacy. It may also be useful to contact your state attorney general.
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